This week’s Parasha is Bo ๐
In this week’s parasha Hashem sends the final 3 plagues. The plague of locusts, of darkness and the death of all the Egyptian firstborn. On completion of the plagues, Am Yisrael were at last sent forth from Egypt.
What was the purpose of these spectacular plagues? Why did Hashem put on such a show in the first place?
Rabbi Yehuda writes in the haggadah that if we group together the first letter of each plague it spells out: ืืฆโื ืขื”ืฉ ืืืโื.
Why? Hashem wanted to show Pharaoh, who thought he was a mighty G-d, that He, Hashem was the true G-d in the world. Hashem wanted to demonstrate that he had the power over every corner of creation. The first 3 plagues, ืืฆโื, came from within the ground. The next 3, ืขื”ืฉ, from things on the earth and the last 4, ืืืโื, from the skies. Hashem rules over everything. He created and keeps the world going. He has the power to go against teva, nature.
But why this show? Why not allow Pharaoh to simply let us go easily after the first request? Hashem describes us telling the story of yetziat mitzrayim as speaking into โthe ears of your sonโ. Of course, it would be in his ear!
The pasuk means that we should tell our children the story in a way that our children will be interested, understand, and want to give the story over to their child too. Telling the story of the exodus of the Jewish people is building a link in the chain of our heritage! The makkot, Yetziat Mitzrayim, Matan Torah happened to an entire Nation! Father to son, mother to daughter, an unbroken tradition, we are telling our history to our children โ our future!
We need to inspire the next generation. In the Haggadah it says that there are four types of children, The rasha, chacham, tam and the eyno yodeah aych lishol (the one who does not know how to ask). We need to tailor make the story so each one of our children can understand in their way. By doing this they will want to give over the โstoryโ to their children to continue creating links for generations to come.
โจ *Shabbat Shalom* โจ